Berkeley to stay in controversial Urban Shield

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Stop Urban Shield coalition protesters march around the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, Calif., on Friday, Sept. 9, 2016. Urban Shield, which is being held at the fairgrounds, is an event for law enforcement that includes SWAT training and disaster preparedness. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

BERKELEY — Berkeley police and firefighters will take part in this year’s contentious Urban Shield emergency preparedness training despite public outcry against it.

Critics of the program — which is run by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and financed by the U.S. Homeland Security Department — have said it promotes police militarization and has featured vendors selling products with violent or racist messages.

Though several City Council members have expressed concern over the items sold at the event and the technology and devices used in the training, Councilwoman Susan Wengraf — in agreement with City Manager Dee Williams-Ridley and police and fire officials — has maintained that Berkeley should remain in Urban Shield and work to change it from within.

Wengraf introduced a resolution at a special council meeting Monday night to allow police and firefighters to participate in all parts of the two-day program. The resolution passed 5-4, with council members Linda Maio, Sophie Hahn, Lori Droste, Wengraf and Mayor Jesse Arreguin voting in support of it. Council members Kate Harrison, Kriss Worthington, Ben Bartlett and Cheryl Davila voted against staying in Urban Shield.

Arreguin cast the deciding vote, he said in an interview Tuesday morning. Voting in support of Wengraf’s resolution was tough for him, he said, because he has “serious concerns about the current configuration of Urban Shield and the fact that (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has participated in it.” But after members of the Police Department’s SWAT team threatened to quit if they were not able to go to the Urban Shield event, he said, he felt he had to vote for it.

“The consequences of our council telling the police department that they could not participate would be significant. It would have a negative impact when (police) are understaffed,” he said.

About six of Berkeley’s 164 officers will be taking part in the two-day training, Wengraf said in an interview last month.

Harrison, via email Tuesday, said she was disappointed in other council members’ framing of the proposal to pull out of Urban Shield as merely “symbolic.”

“Concern about militarization of the police, the reality that different communities experience the police differently and a desire for greater community-based emergency preparedness are not mere symbolism. They instead go to the heart of how we act as a community and care for one another,” Harrison said.

The council also voted Monday to submit 15 recommendations for changes to Urban Shield to Alameda County. Those recommendations include excluding ICE, including a “sensitivity officer” to ensure the training is aligned with community values and expanding the involvement of residents, local police and fire departments, and county supervisors in the program and cutting out the role of vendors in designing disaster scenarios.

The recommendations also call for setting as a priority “identified public safety preparedness gaps rather than the product testing needs of private-sector donors” and a greater emphasis on responding to local threats such as gas pipeline issues, natural disasters, and health and environmental concerns.

Crews from several fire departments are battling a major grass fire late Saturday afternoon that has claimed at least 500 acres in a rural area in Solano County between Vacaville and Winters, and is prompting mandatory evacuations, firefighters said.